User:Atower123/Ann Pearson

Ann Pearson is a Professor at Harvard University. She has conducted a wide range of research in the area of marine biogeochemistry.

Background and Education

Ann Pearson is a Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She obtained her B.A in Chemistry from Oberlin College in 1992. Pearson received her Ph.D in Chemical Oceanography from a joint MIT/WHOI program and was awarded the C.G. Rossby Award for Best Dissertation in the Program in 2000. Pearson now serves as the Murray and Martha Ross Professor of Environmental Sciences at Harvard University, a chair she has held since 2013. She began her career as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution before advancing to the role of post-doctoral investigator. Pearson also currently serves as the head of the Pearson Lab at Harvard, also known as the Laboratory for Molecular Biogeochemistry and Organic Geochemistry.

Research

Pearson has a wide range of research interests, although she largely focuses on carbon isotope biogeochemistry. Her work involves combining approaches in analytical chemistry, isotope geochemistry, and molecular biology to the disciplines of Earth history and biochemical oceanography. Pearson uses the study of microbial processes to generate insight about the environmental conditions of the Earth in the past, present, and future. Some of her recent work includes projects interested in the carbon and nitrogen cycles, as well as pathways of lipid biosynthesis. In the past, her work has included compound-specific D13C and D14C analysis, as well as work on microbial metabolism in anoxic marine systems. Moreover, she has conducted research on the global organic carbon cycle and the sources of carbon to marine sediments. At the Pearson Lab, she has "pioneered the use of natural radiocarbon (14C) measurements of individual biomolecules to understand the biogeochemical processes mediated by uncultured communities of prokaryotes."

Fellowships and Awards


 * Harry Holmes Prize in Chemistry, Oberlin college, 1992
 * Ida M. Green Graduate Student Fellowship, MIT, 1994-1995
 * Geological Society of America, Organic Geochemistry Division, Most Outstanding Paper, 1997.
 * C.G. Rossby Award for Best Dissertation in the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate; Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science; MIT, 2000.
 * David and Lucille Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering, 2004-2009.
 * Radcliffe Institute Fellow, 2009-2010.

References